I’ve been waiting for Sex and the City to find its way to Netflix ever since I stopped being able to afford Max. (At a certain point, every reasonable millennial must choose between expensive skin care and premium channels, and I’ve chosen my skin.) And now the blessed day has finally come. As of April 1, all six seasons of the original show have finally made it to the streaming platform, and while this is primarily exciting news for people who are (rudely) young enough not to have seen the original run, I’m obviously no stranger to a rewatch. I used to put on a random SATC episode to provide a kind of fabulous white noise every time I was cooking dinner or running a bath, and I’m excited to get back into that ritual.
It’s fun to make your way through all of Carrie and co.’s exploits in sequential order, but I would argue that it’s even more fun to mix up a batch of nostalgic cosmopolitans, invite your besties over, and play the hits. Below and in no particular order, find the 11 most classic episodes of Sex and the City to rewatch on Netflix this month:
“Escape From New York” (Season 3, Episode 13)
I live in LA, so obviously I’m a sucker for seeing Carrie Bradshaw attempt to drive around this fair and cursed city. But even if you’re not an Angeleno, this episode—which includes everyone from a dildo model to Matthew McConaughey—is absolutely perfect rewatch fodder. Is it me, or did the girls’ outfits get five times more chic once they touched down in California?
“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (Season 2, Episode 1)
This episode is almost perfect, except for the whole subplot about Samantha being a size queen; we get Carrie dating “the new Yankee,” Charlotte dating a guy who’s addicted to scratching his crotch, and Miranda giving her infamous “It’s like seventh grade with bank accounts!” speech, all in less than 30 minutes.
“A Vogue Idea” (Season 4, Episode 17)
I mean, obviously I’m biased, but watching Carrie lurch around the shoe closet of my literal workplace is all I’ve ever wanted. (I love to quote her “I’m drunk at Vogue!” line every year at the holiday party, and I don’t think anyone is sick of this, personally.) This episode also includes a smart proto-#MeToo subplot and a very hot pair of Manolo Mary Janes.
“Splat!” (Season 6, Episode 18)
Oh, Lexi Featherston, we hardly knew ye. I am an avowed Petrovsky hater (seriously, I even prefer whiny, KFC-eating Aidan), but I love watching Carrie try to fit him into her life while she asks herself the question that every Gotham dweller must, at some point, confront: Is New York over?
“They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?” (Season 2, Episode 4)
Three words (well, three words and a punctuation mark): “Single and Fabulous?” For a more thorough explanation of why Carrie Bradshaw works best when she’s in her flop era, see here.
“Cover Girl” (Season 5, Episode 4)
As a former Weight Watcher who’s grateful every day that I’m no longer measuring out my life in points, I have a complicated relationship to this episode, which sees a postpartum Miranda meet a cute guy at a WW meeting. It definitely never happened to me, but I guess anything’s possible on television.
“Are We Sluts?” (Season 3, Episode 6)
I mean, can you even do a no-skips-hits-only rewatch of Sex and the City without including this landmark episode? It’s mildly insane that a show so focused on sex took three years to include a character getting tested for an STD, but it was the aughts, I suppose. In many ways, I feel this episode paved the way for Lena Dunham’s Girls, but I’ll save that particular dissertation-length rant for another time.
“Sex and the Country” (Season 4, Episode 9)
Only Carrie Bradshaw could find a man with a country house and somehow make it a problem (and I say that as no particular fan of Aidan’s). This episode sees her trying to order a cosmo at a drive-through and features Aidan and Big mud wrestling, so how could I not include it?
“The Baby Shower” (Season 1, Episode 10)
It was from watching this episode at some inappropriately young age that I learned what a pregnancy test was, if I remember correctly. But even outside of that weird formative memory, this episode has it all: a wild child turned Connecticut mom, a road trip, a pregnancy scare, and an “I Don’t Have a Baby” party. (To quote Samantha: “I don’t have a baby! Everybody drink!”)
“Politically Erect” (Season 3, Episode 2)
John Slattery, a.k.a. Roger Sterling from Mad Men, as a secretly kinky politico trying to woo Carrie? I’m deeply on board with that, if not with Carrie’s startling assertion that she doesn’t really vote. (Hot girls vote in local elections, end of story.)
“The Real Me” (Season 4, Episode 2)
I think about Heidi Klum nimbly stepping over a fallen Carrie on the runway more than I’m comfortable admitting.
